Software for Child, Family, and American Indian Social Services
Volume 10, Holiday 2009
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Greetings!
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I want to welcome you to our special Holiday Issue of Handel Quarterly. With more and more of our users online, we are going to start publishing HQ more frequently in electronic form. While it will be more regularly than once a quarter we are keeping the name HQ as this is how most of our readers know our newsletter. We will continue to publish a "digest" version of our print copy. As always, we would love to hear from you, so don't hesitate to contact us (see links on the left). From all of us at Handel Information Technologies, we want to wish you all a very joyous Holiday Season. Even Brande President and CEOHandel Information Technologies, Inc.
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RiteTrack 4 is Here
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 We are pleased to announce that the next generation of RiteTrack has arrived. Announced during the technical keynote at the 7th annual RiteTrack conference in Las Vegas in October, RiteTrack 4 promises to set new standards for human services software. "RiteTrack 4 is built on Microsoft's revolutionary Silverlight technology. For the first time we are offering rich user experiences, previously only found in desktop applications, in a web application," says Michael Stephens, Director of Product Development at Handel. Unlike other browser-based solutions available today, RiteTrack will look exactly the same regardless of platform (Mac or PC) or browser. Furthermore, unlike previous technologies, RiteTrack 4 updates significantly faster due to the Silverlight technology, requiring significantly fewer trips back and forth to the server. Even better yet, for clients who still need to work in the field where they may have limited or no Internet access, RiteTrack 4 can operate disconnected from the server, something no other web-based solutions can do today. "Caseworkers simply disconnect, go out in the field and do their work, then come back home and sync up to their server," says Even Brande, President and CEO of Handel. With RiteTrack 4 customers can even run in a traditional desktop mode, completely outside of the browser. With some customers still governed by strict IT policies they can continue to run RiteTrack as if it was a traditional client/server application yet leveraging all the power of the Silverlight platform. Throughout the spring of 2010 existing customers will be able to convert their current RiteTrack installs to RiteTrack 4.
RiteTrack 4 is a state-of-the-art rapid application development framework that enables scalable on-the-premises and cloud based applications. RiteTrack 4 enables developers to quickly and efficiently produce cloud-ready applications with an intuitive, graphical interface.
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Ways to Work Implements RiteTrack for Managing Low-Income Loan Program
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Ways to Work, Inc. is busy these days preparing to launch RiteTrack for managing clients
and loans. The Milwaukee-based organization operates a network of loan offices
across the country, providing small, short-term, low-interest loans to working
poor families with challenging credit histories. Ways to Work's objective,
literally, is to help their clients find a way to get to work. Ways to Work, a
sister-organization of the Alliance for Children and Families, partner with
local, non-profit agencies across the country to provide loans that are
frequently used by families to purchase a reliable used car. The proven Ways to
Work program model includes a low interest loan, financial and budgeting
education, and case management support for borrowers. During the past 25 years,
Ways to Work has made affordable loans to more than 28,000 families and is
currently hosted by over 30 non-profit agencies across the county.
After a
competitive selection process, Ways to Work selected RiteTrack from Handel
Information Technologies for its superior software platform and for its ability
to be completely configured to meet the workflow and collaboration needs of Ways
to Work. The Ways to Work RiteTrack system was developed in record time between
September and November this fall and will be the first system to go live on the
brand new RiteTrack 4 platform, which was released during the 2009 RiteTrack
Conference in Las Vegas in October. Built on Microsoft's Silverlight Technology,
RiteTrack 4 gives Ways to Work the most sophisticated IT platform available in
the human services field today. Says Cheryl Sarasin, Ways to Work's project
manager for the RiteTrack implementation, "With RiteTrack we have found a
first-class solution that works the way we do, and not the other way around. We
are extremely pleased with the speed at which this system has come from
procurement to completion." When Ways to Work goes live with RiteTrack in
January over 100 case workers in 30 states will be logging on to RiteTrack to
make it easier to provide loans to their clients. We are thrilled to be working
with Ways to Work and are looking forward to making a positive difference both for their employees and for the clients that they serve. Click here to see some screenshots from the Ways to Work RiteTrack 4 system.
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RiteTrack and Social Media
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By Even BrandeAt the RiteTrack Conference in Las Vegas last
month we talked a lot about using social media and how it might
integrate with RiteTrack. As a matter of fact, after I did a session on
current trends in Social Media on day 1 of our conference, a team of
Handel staff were so motivated they decided to take an idea and turn it
into action (something that commonly happens here at Handel). Alas,
next morning during the technical keynote, Michael Stephens, Director
of Product Development, showcased how they had integrated Twitter
directly into RiteTrack. Using an available C# Twitter Library,
Twitterizer, RiteTrack became instantly able to integrate with Twitter.
Figure 1: An example of how you can send Tweets from inside RiteTrack.There are two points to be made here. First, this
task was accomplished in no more than two hours (and it would have
probably been even faster had this idea not been conceived at 3 AM when
our ISP decided to take a time-out) a testament to how easy it is to
extend the RiteTrack platform. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it
demonstrates how you can take two great technologies and come up with
something entirely new. In the demonstration made by Michael and his team, Twitter was
integrated with the RiteTrack Status board. A change to the status of
an employee in RiteTrack ("Out to Lunch") is instantly posted to
Twitter. Likewise, a Tweet sent from outside RiteTrack, attaches itself
to the status board. While Twitter is just one of several social media
technologies that can augment RiteTrack, we have already come up with
at least half a dozen use cases for how RiteTrack and Twitter can work
together. Some are pre-mature to mention at this point, and others are
already being implemented as we speak. Stay tuned for more updates. Note: If you like this article, consider subscribing to the Handel blog by clicking here.
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RiteTrack, Now Appearing on a Blackberry Near You...
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By Casey Bader
I recently celebrated my birthday and as one of my requested
gifts I received a PlayStation Portable (PSP). My intention with this toy is to
use it while I travel, to play games while flying and in hotel rooms. In
addition to playing games the PSP also plays music, plays video and surfs the
internet. Talking with a person whom I had just met about this they commented,
"You should just get a laptop." Of course I have a laptop, and I could just
play games on the laptop. I also travel with a Blackberry and an MP3 player.
Since there is so much functionality that overlaps between these devices, what
in the world am I doing packing them all over the country? Isn't the intent of
these devices to have one device to rule (replace) them all?
For me the answer is no. Each of these devices has a unique
role or advantage, personally, for which I prefer to have each available. These
roles have less to do with the functionality of the device than my information
or media consumption preferences and the relative ease and strengths of the
specific functionality. Yes, I could play games on my laptop, but not easily in
a plane or lying in bed. My Blackberry and PSP will play music, but I am not
going to strap one on to go run or workout. My Blackberry keeps me constantly
connected and I prefer to read text web articles on it but would rather view
multi-media rich websites on my laptop. Each of these devices has one or
several specialties that make it important enough to keep with me, even if I
have another device that performs a similar function.
The development of different interfaces for RiteTrack
reflects this idea of different devices being best for specific tasks. An
excellent example is the recent release of the RiteTrack Status Board
BlackBerry App. A BlackBerry or Smartphone would likely never be extensively
used to access and navigate a complete RiteTrack system, but the Status Board
fits perfectly into this form factor. The functionality is discreet, the
interface simple, and it is exceedingly useful for clocking in and out while
travelling. Until the availability of a rich web interface and the release of
RiteTrack Silverlight there were tasks and functions that were necessarily
weaker in the web client. While the Silverlight release eliminated this issue,
as RiteTrack appears on more devices we will target the best functionality from
the system for each interface.
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Even Brande
President and CEO
Handel Information Technologies, Inc.
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